They were afloat again soon after daylight, and the thought that they were safe and sound and all together again brought unspeakable joy to every heart—and we might include Maj in the list, for from his seat in the middle of the raft he eyed his friends with an expression of great comfort and satisfaction.
Long before the sun rose high enough to look into the cañon they had drifted many miles away from their camp of the morning.
The current, which Sam estimated at about three miles an hour, was unbroken; flowing on in silent majesty, between the cold, gray cliffs that rose at points for more than a mile sheer up, till their eyes grew giddy in measuring their elevation.
Here and there, to the right and left, they passed side cañons, black and forbidding, like cells set in the walls of a mighty prison.
In the afternoon these side cañons became more frequent, and as they approached one Sam saw that a stream of clear water was pouring out from between its walls.
As this opening was on the east, or left bank, and in the direction of Hurley's Gulch, he determined to try and get the raft into it, and see if they could find an avenue to the upper world through its bed.
He told Ulna of his purpose, and in an instant the young Ute had a pole in his hand.
They could touch bottom at this point and as the current from the side cañon was not very strong, they succeeded in getting the raft in.
The bed of the stream was so narrow in places that Ike on one side and Wah Shin on the other were enabled to help along by pulling at the rocks.
It was growing dark again, and Sam, elated at their success so far, began to fear that they might not be able to reach a place where they could make fast for the night, when all at once the cañon walls, as if they had been touched by the wand of a magician, expanded into a beautiful bowl-shaped valley.